I adore the unique British band Half Man Half Biscuit, but I would be the first to admit that they aren't for everyone.

Anyone who tells you that they have identified every reference in every HMHB song is lying (or Nigel Blackwell, who writes them -- and I'm not convinced even he could get them all, sometimes.)

Their newest album, the wonderfully (and typically) titled CSI: Ambleside just came out, and I picked it up yesterday at HMV, taking it over to bhata's with me for a first listen. We all agreed it was a thumbs-up and, if anything, even better than its predecessor Achtung Bono. There's a more definite rock groove (apart from one track which comes perilously close to being rap, but amuses nonetheless) and it's perhaps a smidge more accessible than some of their other releases this century, though of course it will still come nowhere within ten miles of denting the charts.

If you've never heard any HMHB, give it a listen.

Oh, and speaking of obscure references... The CD's back cover proclaims that it was 'produced by R M Qualtrough'. This name rang a faint bell for me, and not a musical one either, so I looked further...

And it was as I thought. 'R M Qualtrough' was the false name given by the never-identified murderer of Julia Wallace in Liverpool (HMHB's home town, of course!) back in 1931, a real-life whodunit celebrated at the time, and even now, for its complexity -- Julia Wallace was in some ways the Madeleine McCann of her day. Her husband, an inoffensive little insurance salesman, was lured out of the house by a phone call to sell a policy to a non-existent address, and while he was out searching for it, 'Qualtrough' broke into his house and killed his wife. The police decided that Mr Wallace must himself be the murderer and he was actually found guilty at his trial, but then cleared by the Court of Appeal -- the first such case in British legal history, I do believe. It's all at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herbert_Wallace and http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/wallace.html.

A quick Google suggests that I may be the first on the Internet to nail this little joke by Nigel, and I'm feeling insufferably smug about it. Which is, of course, why HMHB are a perfect band for me.